The present invention relates to a workpiece processing method for carrying out a working step on a workpiece by means of a tool, in particular for carrying out a stud joining process, wherein the working step is carried out while taking into account at least one parameter value which is selected from a set of values, and wherein the working step is to be carried out at a certain position on the workpiece, said position determining the parameter value.
Furthermore, the present invention relates to a tool for carrying out such a method, in particular a stud joining tool, and to a positioning device for carrying out this method.
In workpiece processing methods of the type described above, working steps of the same type can be carried out in succession by means of the tool, for example successive stud joining processes. On account of the boundary conditions, however, it may be necessary to set the tool and/or other parameters differently for each of these processes. In stud joining processes, for example, the stud materials and/or the workpiece materials or workpiece thicknesses can vary from process to process. As a rule, this is taken into account by other joining parameters being preselected, depending on process or position. These joining parameters (for example welding voltage or current, frequency, joining stroke, joining time, etc.) are as a rule stored beforehand in a control device for each process or for each type of process. Before each joining operation, the respective joining parameters are then selected manually according to the position and the process thus to be carried out. This applies in particular to the case where the joining tool is a hand-operated joining tool, for example a joining gun.
Errors can occur during the manual selection, and therefore the incorrect joining parameters are selected for the respective joining process. This may lead to the joint not having the adequate strength, to the workpiece being damaged, etc.
Document DE 20 2009 012 370 U1 discloses a welding apparatus in which a hand unit has at least one signal means for optically displaying operating information of the welding apparatus. This is intended to make it possible to render information about the operating state of the welding apparatus discernible for the user at any time.